That’s Manteca: Quirky season, mismatched parts lead to CIF state title

One by one they assembled on stage, an eclectic herd of Buffaloes, each with a medal dangling around his neck.

There were football players, baseball players, gym rats, a bona fide Division-I talent and a raspy-voiced coach whose roots are colored a rival’s red.

State champions don’t often look so rough around the edges, so mismatched by nature, but as the Manteca High boys basketball team proved Thursday evening, it is anything but conventional.

Before they were hailed as CIF State Division III champions, these Buffaloes stewed over runner-up finishes in the Valley Oak League and Sac-Joaquin Section D-III tournament. They weren’t favored to reach this game; not as a participant, anyway.

“This team plays well with its back against the wall,” coach Brett Lewis said following a 60-51 victory over Ayala of Chino Hills in the Division III final. “They’re resilient.”

And as it turns out, properly coached and constructed.

It took Lewis and his staff two years to perfect the product on the floor, but they succeeded in molding these mismatched parts into the unlikeliest of state champions.

Nevada-bound forward Kenny Wooten flirted with a triple double, the Buffaloes (29-6) shot a blistering 70 percent in the first half and Angel Perez silenced Ayala’s own D-I talent in a wire-to-wire triumph at Sleep Train Arena.

The state title was the third in less than 12 months by a Manteca Unified school, joining the mythical state championship won by the East Union softball team and the inaugural CIF State Division IV-AA title won by the Sierra football team.

The Family City is also the “City of Champions,” and its latest entrant is arguably its most intriguing when you consider this: Wooten didn’t play basketball until his freshman season at Stagg High in Stockton at the behest of his mother.

Wooten transferred to Manteca ahead of his junior season and sat when the Sac-Joaquin Section deemed the move athletically motivated. He was hungry and raw and itching for the opportunity to wear the forest green.

“He’s just scratching the surface,” Lewis said. “If he keeps his head on his shoulders, keeps going forward and working hard, he’s going to be a tough player.”

Wooten was a whirlwind for the Bulldogs, Southern California’s heartbroken champion. He had 26 points, 18 rebounds and nine blocked shots.

Ayala’s very best sat on the same stage with tears in their eyes, heaping best-I’ve-seen praise on the Buffaloes’ super-sized big man.

“The first time I saw him shoot, it was like ‘Holy crap, hope he likes playing on the block,’” Lewis said of his initial assessment of Wooten. “His shot has developed big time. … When he got to us we tried to slow him down and give him a couple of moves. He ran with it.”

The victory validated the long hours, agonizing losses and tough decisions made by Lewis over the last two years. The Buffaloes are a testament to the process; proof a diamond is forged under pressure from within.

Manteca lost four straight to VOL rival and Sac-Joaquin Section D-III champion Weston Ranch dating back to the section semifinal last year.

“Those losses really humbled us,” said Tydus Verhoeven, a junior guard. “They hurt a lot, but as a team, we came together because we wanted to fulfill the potential we had on this team.”

It sounds so easy in hindsight. Like flipping a switch, a team jells in the wake of defeat.

Yet Lewis mixed and matched his starting lineups throughout the season, showing only a loyalty to hustle and production, not seniority or talent.

For proof, look no further than Perez, whose late-season emergence elevated the Buffaloes into the winner’s circle.

The senior guard forced his way into the starting lineup in January with a stick-to-him tenacity on the defensive side of the ball. Perez face-guarded Ayala’s Austen Awosika, a senior guard with a scholarship to Cal State Fullerton.

In his two previous games, Awosika had scored 42 points. On Thursday, he was held scoreless for the first 21 minutes and couldn’t shake Perez.

Awosika finished with two points – or seven fewer than Perez, who pushed Manteca to a 33-19 lead at the half with seven second-quarter points.

When he launched a rare three-pointer from the wing, Lewis erupted into a Yosemite Sam tirade … until the ball dropped through the rim.

Later in the fourth, it was Perez who pushed the ball ahead to Wooten for a game-clinching two-handed flush that left those following on Twitter chirping.

“I think I blew my voice box when he took that three,” Lewis said. “Angel is our defensive guy. That’s why he’s in the game. He’s not selfish at all, so it was huge for him to knock that down. Hats off to him. We need guys like that to be successful.”

Football players. Baseball players. Gym rats. And a budding Division-I talent. With its mismatched parts and unorthodox journey, Manteca may have taken many by surprise.

That’s OK, Lewis said. With a fistful of trophy, he leaned into the microphone on Thursday and made one last point. The dunks and dagger threes, the turnovers and tight moments, even the losses and runner-up finishes …

“That’s us,” he said. “That’s Manteca basketball.”

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 10:05 AM with the headline "That’s Manteca: Quirky season, mismatched parts lead to CIF state title."